


lest he thereby become a monster

by thecat_13145



Series: Monsters [2]
Category: The Avengers (2012), X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-13
Updated: 2012-06-13
Packaged: 2017-11-07 16:06:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/432981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecat_13145/pseuds/thecat_13145
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Logan Joins the Avengers in a world where Steve Rogers was born in Berlin. Sequel to Sometimes Monsters fight with you</p>
            </blockquote>





	lest he thereby become a monster

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Who Fights With Monsters](https://archiveofourown.org/works/380706) by [valderys](https://archiveofourown.org/users/valderys/pseuds/valderys). 



> People asked for a sequel, so here it is. There is a sequel to this planned. I hope people enjoy it.

Most people assumed that Stryker and later Fury had recruited Logan for his abilities.

After all a man who was exceptionally hard to kill, who could swallow a grenade and still be back at his post the next morning, was useful, however you looked at it.

They were wrong.

Logan’s mutation gave him an edge, something he was never stupid enough to deny. But the reason guys like Stryker, like Fury, fought for Logan, killed for Logan was simple.

Logan was very adaptable.

*//*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

“Here’s the thing.” Fury said, carefully. “Legally there was never a warrant issued for Übermensch”

“No point making paperwork for a dead man.” Logan observed, chewing on his cigar. Fury nodded.

“Not when there were more than enough living for them to worry about.” He continued. “That said, there’s a lot of people who’d like to see the guy on trial. So any evidence you can collect. Fingerprints.DNA. vocal records without that dammed helmet. Get it to us as soon as you can.”

He reached out, holding out a communicator. “This should be secure, but with Stark we can’t be sure of anything, so if you have any doubts use another way.” 

He didn’t specify which other way he was thinking of. Both Fury and Logan were experienced enough in intelligence to know that there were some things in a mission that had to be left to chance.

“That said, be careful. Stark’s a bastard and completely ruthless, just like his old man. Thus far, he’s always stuck within the law, but I get the feeling that’s being more luck than anything else. Same as his old man there too.”

Logan grunted because he didn’t really know Howard Stark; just saw the guy from a distance a couple of times and one long ride back to a base, which he does his best to forget. 

Fury knew Howard Stark. Never trusted him, but Fury doesn’t really trust anyone, not even Logan. Not even Maria. 

There’s always a game plan with Fury and you have to watch for it.

“You know what you’re going to use for this op?” Fury asked, watching him cautiously. 

Logan nodded. “Wolverine.”

Fury raised an eyebrow. “Thought you threatened to gut the last guy who called you that.”

Logan shrugged. “Seems to be lucky.”

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/**/

There were some things about Stefan Rutgers that were not in the archives, that were not recorded anywhere now.

One of those was that his father had being a drunkard. Josef Rutgers had being a brave man, a hero of the Great War; awarded the Iron Cross, but at home the drink would transform him into a monster who attacked his wife and son.

If such a thing had reached the Führer’s ears, or Dr Erskine then Stefan would have almost certainly being disqualified from the program. Did not the doctors say that such things were genetic?

But the only person who had known Stefan back then was Jeckel and Jeckel was dead.

Never the less, his father had given his son one gift. An almost sixth sense, developed long before the serum to know when he was in danger.

It had served the Führer well more times that Stefan could count, detecting ambushes and traitors to the Reich before they occurred. Had he not warned the man to be careful of Hess? And Hess had ultimately proved him right, at least if the books Tony supplied were to be believed.

And it was warning him now that the man who sat eating bacon at the table, as though he had being invited to breakfast instead of just breaking in here in the middle of the night, was dangerous.

Black Widow-Natasha- Was the first to break the silence.

“Logan?” She sounded surprised. “What are you doing here?”

The man, Logan apparently shrugged. “Nice to you too, Darlin’” Stefan braced himself, remembering Tony’s accounts of the fate of the board member who had addressed Natasha like that, but she remained, just staring at him. “Fury sent me. Thought you could use a mutant on your team.”

Hawkeye moved around, examining the alarm panels. “You set this one off deliberately.” He said, staring at the man, who shrugged.

“Seemed a bit rude to just expect you guys to accept me at breakfast.”

“And breaking into the Penthouse wasn’t?” Natasha’s tone doesn’t match the harshness of her words. And it makes sense on some level that in their world, it wouldn’t be.

Logan glanced around. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?” He asked. His eyes rested on Stefan longer than the others, and he forced himself to be calm, especially as the other man held out a paw of a hand. “Name’s Logan. Folks call me Wolverine.” He shrugged, like this is no big deal. “Guess you guys can call me that as well.”

His accent isn’t American, but it’s like that. Stefan couldn’t place it, though he knew Tony would when he asked him later.

Deciding that an attack is the best form of defence, Stefan slowly stepped forward, holding out his hand. He wasn’t wearing the full armour, just the yellow under armour suit that Tony created and the helmet.

“Iron Man.” He said, slowly and carefully. Logan took the hand, gripping it tightly, so tightly that Stefan had to bite down on his lip to stop himself from swearing. If the under armour wasn’t almost as good as the real thing (Tony swears it could stop a bullet at point blank range and the unstable molecules that make it up shift the forces applied to them to even things out), Stefan was certain his hand would be crushed. He squeezed back almost as determinedly, staring the other man down.

He had the pleasure of seeing something like annoyance flash across the other man’s face, before Tony stepped forward.

“Yeah, umm what are you doing here?”

Logan released his hand, fixing blue eyes on Tony with a shrug.

“Told you. Fury sent me to join the Avengers. Last time I checked, you guys were using this as a base so...” He smiles, a wolf’s smile on a man’s face. “Don’t have to have me here; of course, it’s your private property. But as Fury ordered me here and he gives legitimacy to your gang...” He let his voice trail off, the threat apparent.

Attack remained the best form of Defence, so Stefan stepped forward slowly. 

“Welcome to the Avengers.”

*//*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

“Your teammates are:” Fury brought images up on to the screen. “Thor Odinson. Claims to be a god. We’ve no direct evidence that he doesn’t believe it.”

“Do we?” Logan asked, pulling the files towards him. 

Fury snorted. “We have enough trouble without Gods.” He continued. “Bruce Banner, A.K.A the Hulk. A sort of comrade in arms of yours. Banner was trying to recreate Erskine’s experiments, believe that Gammas rays would do it. The Results were....unexpected.”

A huge green monster rushed across the scenes.

“Coulson, Barton and Romanov.” Fury glanced at Logan. “Think you know all about them.”

Logan grinned. He probably knew more about Natasha than SHIELD did, and he’d worked with both Coulson and Barton before.

“And of course, your target.” Images filled the screens of a red and gold blur going into battle with Doom bots, with aliens, with monsters. “Pops up about a year ago. No records that we can find.”

Fury glanced across at Logan, watching as the other man’s eyes travelled over the screen. “Might be that I’m being paranoid, and there’s nothing there.” He could see the recognition forming in the man’s eyes, the way his body was instinctively tempting, preparing for battle. “Or we could have the greatest monster of our times running around as hero.” He paused. “You need to find out which it is.”

/**//*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

The best interrogations, as every SHIELD agent knows, come when your subject doesn’t realise he’s being interrogated.

There’s lots of ways to do that. 

Natasha normally makes the subject think that he’s in the position of power, that he has some form of hold over her. It’s risky, but it works.

Coulson is quiet, calm. His interrogations are probably the nearest SHIELD sees to normal questioning patterns, but the man is a genius for putting people at ease, making them tell him stuff they wouldn’t normally consider.  
Barton overloads people with information, until they snap and tell him what he wants to know.

Logan’s technique is different and simple. He lets people talk and listens to them.

Thor has lost his brother. No matter how Loki appears to the rest of SHIELD, to the rest of the nine realms, to Thor he is still the same child who joined him on raids upon the kitchen and comforted him after Sif refused to date him.

Logan has lost his brother. He’s watched Creed turn towards him and seen the madness in his eyes. He remembers watching Creed’s body consumed with seizer after seizer, the admantium he had so desperately wanted poisoning him by degrees. He joins Thor late in the night and swaps tales of Victor for tales of Loki. Most of it is just brother’s stuff, but now and again there’s something he can use.

Banner is afraid of the Monster within him. Logan understands that, he fears the beast more than anything else including waking up and finding out this is all some dream that Stryker’s cooked up to break him. He ousts Banner from the lab, makes him interact with the real world. And during those interactions, Banner talks.

Pepper Potts is formidable. But she’s also frightened. Logan flirts with her casually, always respecting her boundaries, never pushing a point. He gives her just enough attention that she’s flattered without being annoyed. He does little, casual things, like making sure there’s enough coffee in the pot when she arrives or fetching Stark for her, or after one really long day, when she’s on the verge of tears, taking her out for dinner as a friend. Pepper is loyal, but she’s also desperate. Unfortunately she seems to be more the former than the latter, and Logan is reminded again that she’s the woman who took SHIELD to face the Obadiah. In the end, all he can do is slip her his card and tell him to call her if she wants to talk. They both know she’s not going to, but she takes the card anyway.

Natasha’s folders reveal three points of interest that Fury forgot to mention, or more probably ignored. Firstly a visit Xavier Mansion, and a visitor pass issued for one Doug Ramsey.

Logan pushed that to one side as another potential witness, but one he didn’t want to use unless he had no choice. He didn’t want to create problems between Erik and his boyfriend, and aiding the living embodiment of Fascism, however inadvertently, was likely to spark an argument between them. The last time that had happened, the Helicarrier had being flying in the wrong direction for a month as the navigation systems were confused.

Second is some pretty big anonymous donations to programs against fascism and to help survivors of the Holocaust. Logan notes this against the information on book orders about the Nuremberg trials, all from fairly conservative historians. If this guy isn’t the Übermensch, then Logan is prepared to bet he’s related to him. And he’s got a serious guilt complex.

Third is a search though ever archive in Germany and in the US for any information on one Margarete Kärrner. Logan couldn’t help it, he laughed. He had forgotten about Margarete.

He made a mental note to speak to Roger about it, but again that was a back up option. 

If Iron Man was the Übermensch, then he’d prefer to have proof without pulling anyone else into it. He didn’t know what Fury’s endgame was, but somehow or other he doubted it was putting the guy on trial. Maybe reigning Stark in, but nothing more than that.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

Tony had debated long and hard before offering Stark Tower as a base of operations for Fury’s group. 

On the one hand, he wanted as little to do with Fury as possible. 

While SHIELD might be Stark Industries biggest clients, and yeah he was grateful to them for pulling his fat out of the fire a couple of times, Nick Fury was a controlling, suspicious bastard, whose secrets had secretes. Tony had still yet to forgive him, probably never would, for inserting Romanoff into his company and all the mess and extra paperwork that had created for Pepper.

Plus, he was sure that Fury was at least suspicious about Iron Man.

On the other hand, there was Stefan.

Now Obie was gone, Tony had to do a lot of more travelling. Even handing over most of the COE functions to Pepper hadn’t stopped that. Most of the time he took Stefan with him, but some (like the visits to the Stark Industry Factory outside of Duffedolf) it just wasn’t possible.

First time he left, he had left pens, paper, the newest Stark Industry tablet, instructions to Jarvis to let Stefan go where ever he wanted in the penthouse, but to make sure he stayed inside the tower. 

He logged on to Jarvis that night in Berlin.

Stefan hadn’t left the bedroom, had hardly moved all day.

When Jarvis had sent food up to the pent house, Stefan had eaten and put the dishes out to be washed. But he had never ventured out of the bedroom, never attempted to go anywhere within the tower. Never touch the pencils or the paper. Just sat there.

At first Tony had worried that he’d not made it clear to Stefan that he wasn’t a prisoner. That he could leave his room without Tony.

Stefan had nodded and smiled like he understood that.

His behaviour didn’t change.

By the fifth time, Pepper is looking like she’s seriously considering killing Stefan, because the one thing she’s never had problems with is getting Tony out of the country when she needs him out of it. 

And now Tony isn’t keen to go.

Because Stefan retreats to the room they now share and doesn’t emerge until Tony comes back.

And if locking Stefan in a cell made Tony feel like he was kicking a puppy, this is more along the lines of clubbing a baby seal.

Then the aliens attack New York.

And Stefan flung on the armour and attacked them.

Without Tony.

And yeah, he’s still a little jealous about that. A little angry that the guy took a nuclear bomb to another realm and didn’t even think to call him. (Stefan explains that he didn’t know he could. And that he though Tony would be angry with him).

But still major progress.

Plus while Hawkeye is technically SHIELD, Tony gathered that after events in New York, Fury didn’t trust him, even if Natasha did.

This was confirmed by the conversation he was currently listening to.

He wasn’t eaves dropping. You shouldn’t have private conversations in a public place in English if you didn’t want other people to overhear them.

“What are you really doing here Logan?”

“I told you. Fury felt_”

“You couldn’t give a dam what Fury felt. You’ve said often enough that parading around in a skin tight costume doesn’t help mutants.”

Tony could hear the clack of her heels as Natasha walked across the kitchen to face him. “Clint thinks you’re here to spy on him.”

“Barton’s an idiot.”

Tony shifted, so that he could see Natasha standing there, arms folded, staring at Logan. He knows that look, he’s seen it often enough on Pepper.

Give me something they’ll believe.

A sigh. “Dr. Cornelius is appealing again.” The voice is very soft. Tony almost doesn’t here it. “This time he’s offering names. People Stryker did business with. Fury says that there’s no chance that the appeal will go through, but...”

“They want the names.” Natasha looks as tired as she does in the helicarrier videos (which he sort of may have hacked into), when she was talking to Loki. Only this time it’s real.

“Tvoyu mat'!”

“Tell me about it.” Logan shrugged, the short man’s shoulders moving in a smooth motion like a well oiled machine. “Fury told me I could stay with Xavier or here until they sorted things out and while I like Erik, Xavier’s has got too many memories.”

Natasha’s heels clack again and glancing around, Tony can see her wrapping her hands around Logan’s neck.

“Oh Little Uncle.”

Tony tiptoed away.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

Natasha’s voice ghosted across Logan’s ear, too low for anyone but him to hear it.

“Think Stark brought it?”

Logan paused, sniffing the air, before replying in the same low tone. “Yeah.” 

He glanced up at her. “Thanks Natalia.”

Natasha shrugged. “Stark is a fool.”

He hasn’t told her exactly who they think Iron Man is. The Übermensch is one of the few things that might make Natasha break cover and decide to go for jugular, which wouldn’t suit Fury at all.

“Maybe.” He agreed softly. “But we need him to trust us.”


End file.
